Brown denies dope claims

FRESH allegations of rife doping at professional team Rabobank have been denied by Australia's dual Olympic champion, Graeme Brown, who is entering his eighth season with the rebadged outfit.

Thomas Dekker, twice a Dutch national champion who was banned for two years in 2009 for using EPO while he was at Rabobank, is among a large group claiming his old team ''functioned around doping'' from 1996 until as recently as last year.

Dekker, now with Garmin-Sharp, has told Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad doping and blood transfusions were common at Rabobank. The newspaper reports it has about 10 testimonies from former Rabobank riders supporting Dekker's statements.

''It was easy to be influenced, doping was common, it was everywhere,'' Dekker, who has also admitted to using blood transfusions in 2007, told the newspaper. ''There was no one saying anything against it. Doping was common practice, a way of competing, for a number of my teammates, colleagues and therefore me too … blood transfusions, I thought, were the path to success. All the big riders were doing it.''

Another ex-Rabobank rider quoted, but not identified, in the Dutch report said Rabobank started doping in 1996 because ''the whole peloton functioned on EPO''.

Brown - one of four Australians riding with the rebadged Rabobank team this year - said Dekker's claims, while not beyond belief, did not reflect his experience.

''Maybe that was the way for him, or maybe that was the way for the guys that did the Tour [de France] - maybe - but it certainly wasn't the way for Rabobank,'' Brown told Fairfax Media before Andre Greipel won stage one of the Tour Down Under.

''Mind you, I never did the races he [Dekker] did. I'd see him maybe three times in a year, probably. I can't say 100 per cent that it never happened, but I was never involved and I never saw that happen.

''I'm very proud of the fact that even if you had samples of mine from 15 years ago and re-tested them now with new technology, unless they're testing for coffee, I would not be in trouble.''

Mark Renshaw is another Australian with Rabobank, now known as Blanco after the Dutch bank withdrew its sponsorship due to cycling's most recent doping crisis. Renshaw joined in 2012, crossing from Team Columbia-Highroad. Jack Bobridge and David Tanner are new to Blanco this year, while fellow Australian Michael Matthews left Rabobank to join Australia's Orica-GreenEDGE.

Erik Dekker, a foundation rider for Rabobank, four-time Tour de France stage winner and now a chief sports director for Blanco, distanced himself from Thomas Dekker's statements on Tuesday. Eric Dekker told Fairfax Media: ''It's his words. It's his truth. If he thinks about it that way that's his problem or his opinion, I don't know. But I keep my opinion with me and that's it because it doesn't go nowhere this discussion.''

The Dekkers are not related but were former teammates at Rabobank.

Brown, a professional since 2002, has been back in Australia since mid-December. Unlike fellow veteran Stuart O'Grady, however, he says he has not been interviewed or contacted by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority. ASADA is investigating several current and ex-Australian cyclists following Matt White's admission he doped while a teammate of Lance Armstrong's. O'Grady - who, like Brown, says he never doped - said in December ASADA wanted to talk to him again.

Dekker's comments have been translated into English from a report in French newspaper L'Equipe.